Web Ink Now

Kolkata Traffic Police uses Facebook for real-time citizen communications

While I was in Kolkata (Calcutta), India last week delivering a social media masterclass at the Confederation of Indian Industry Brand Conclave, several people told me about the remarkable use of Facebook by the Kolkata Traffic Police. Amazingly, as I write this, more than 22,000 people "like" the Kolkata Traffic Police Facebook page.

In a world where many are skeptical about social media, dismissing tools like Facebook as "for kids" the Kolkata Traffic Police serves citizens in the way they prefer.

What's the traffic status?

The the Kolkata Traffic Police Facebook page includes traffic status updates such as "Traffic along R B Connector & P C Connector are heavy due to water logging" together with detailed reports posted as photos. This one had 119 "likes" and 46 comments such as: "immensely helpful.. :) Thanks a ton KTP" and "This is very proactive. Thank you, Kolkata Traffic Police!"

Got a traffic violation complaint?

In real-time, citizens can use the page to lodge complaints on the page and the police will follow up. Many such complaints are regarding the widespread problem of taxi drivers' refusal of certain fares. With Facebook, a complaint is lodged (people upload photo and video evidence to Facebook) and the police follow up with the result of the inquiry.

For example, this was posted by the police a few hours prior to me writing this post: "@Yagnish Rathi......as per your facebook complaint regarding taxi refusal vide memo no F/B-1601 dated-24/09/12, this is to inform you that the driver of the cab (WB04E9027) has been prosecuted vide case no. pgTX00299/12. Thanks & regards."

This serves as a transparent way for the police to show the work they are doing and also publically calls out the offender if caught. And over time, as taxi drivers figure out what's going on, the problem should diminish.

Like!

I just love this real-time use of social media. So do the citizens of Kolkata. The effort serves as positive PR for the police.

Heck, if a police force can use Facebook at work, why are so many organizations still fearful and say "no"?

Foursquare and Twitter done right

Frequently when I travel, I check in to hotels and restaurants on Foursquare and send photos of places I find interesting via Instagram and Facebook. I've done this in several hundred places.

Normally nothing happens on the other side. There is no engagement from the hotel or restaurant on Twitter. There is nothing happening on Foursquare. They don't care about instant engagement.

Foursquare done right

When I arrived at The Oberoi Grand in Kalkata (Calcutta), India and checked in via Foursquare, I unlocked a special. Nice. Great real-time connection. The special said: "Extended stay offer: Enjoy a complimentary third night with every two consecutive bights booked at any of our hotels in Agra, Jaipur or Udaipur". It pointed to this link which offered exactly what was promised. (Many such offers point to a generic home page).

Twitter done right

Later I tweeted a photo of the hotel bar and sure enough Oberoi Hotels retweeted me.

Stand out in social media through real-time engagement

Very few hotels and restaurants engage this way. So I found this experience unique and delightful. In a commodity business like hotels (after all there are many options of places to stay), social media can be a great way to stand out. Then people talk about you like I'm doing here.

Biggest, Fastest, Tallest: Marketing with superlatives

I've spent the last few days in the United Arab Emirates and unlike the vast majority of visitors I actually got out of Dubai where I'm staying. In fact I've visited all seven emirates. Yesterday my friend Paul Keijzer and I hired a car and visited the five emirates north and east of Dubai and we also headed into northern Oman briefly (at the Straight of Hormuz).

The UAE is full of superlatives. Today, thanks to David Haddad, I visited the top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest building. Later, at Abu Dhabi's Ferrari World (the world's largest indoor theme park), I rode the world's fastest roller coaster (zero to 240 km/hr in 4.9 seconds). I rounded out my day with a few downhill runs at Ski Dubai, the largest indoor snow park in the world.

There are many more winners in the biggest, fastest, tallest, and most expensive categories here in the UAE. It's an important marketing strategy.

Which got me thinking of how beneficial this sort of marketing is. Here I am talking about it, right? So it works. And as I made my way around Dubai, many people asked if I was visiting these "biggest, fastest, tallest" places. Dubai is certainly known for these world’s greatest things. It is an excellent brand image. For now.

Can you top this?

This kind of superlative marketing strategy is tricky because someone can always trump you. Other places have announced plans for taller buildings. Soon, my guess is there will be a faster roller coaster. Will as many people still pay the instant admission fee of over USD $100 to visit the top of the Burj Khalifa when it is the second tallest building? Will they still flock to Ferrari World?

More importantly, when the UAE becomes a country of second bests, will it continually build in order to maintain its position on top of the world? Or can the country safely settle into another brand image?

These are the sorts of important questions all organizations that use superlatives as a marketing strategy need to consider.

How Content Works

This is David Byrne week.

There is an important content marketing lesson to be learned from the Talking Heads front man and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, but first some background.

On Sunday, I caught the sensational David Byrne and St. Vincent show at the Orpheum Theater with my friend, HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan. Regular readers know I'm a mega music geek and maintain a spreadsheet with, as of this writing, 518 bands I have seen in concert since I was 16. The David Byrne and St. Vincent show was top ten. Really. It was that good.

Consulting my spreadsheet, I see the last time I saw Byrne live was when I caught the Talking Heads on August 19, 1983 at the old Forrest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York City. Here's the NYT review of that show.

How Music Works

The other part of David Byrne week is his fabulous new book How Music Works. The book is Byrne's take on the industry he's succeeded in. He offers keen observations about the music industry, the art of making music, telling stories in the book using a combination of history, anthropology, and music theory. I love this book!

In particular, Byrne has a fascinating take on the development of music, which is quite different from what other music historians say. In a chapter titled "Creation in Reverse" he argues that music evolves to fill the space where it is performed.

For example, the Talking Heads evolved in the 1970s at New York punk club CBGB requiring volume to overcome the din. The sparse music that came out of the CBGB scene such as the Ramones and Television worked perfectly for that room.

Music that evolved in gothic cathedrals (lots of reverberation) has long notes with no key changes. Carnegie Hall and other similar rooms require texture. With discos, people made music to exploit the fantastic sound systems and people’s need to dance. Rock music played in hockey arenas (the worst acoustics on the planet) must be straightforward with medium tempos. You get the idea. The music that is successful works perfectly for each venue.

With personal sound systems (starting with the Walkman in the 1970s then evolving into MP3 players such as the iPod), all of a sudden you can hear every single detail. This allowed pop music to evolve from its early radio form.

Here is Byrne's 2010 TED Talk on this idea: How architecture helped music evolve.

How Content Works

As I devoured How Music Works I was constantly thinking how Byrne's ideas apply to other forms of content. These ideas are very important for content marketers.

As I see it, success using the different forms of online content is evolutionary to the way the content is consumed. The best content evolves to fill the new media (such as blogs, YouTube videos, Tweets, photo sharing, and the like). Each new way to create content means a new form of content is best suited for the media.

This seemingly simple idea has wide ranging application for marketers and helps explain why some content succeeds and others fail in new environments.

Here are a few specifics:

Distribution: Prior to the Web, creators expected the production and distribution of content to be expensive. You had to print things on paper. You needed to buy film and develop images. You needed to pay to send your stuff in the mail or over the airwaves. With the Web, all of a sudden the cost of creation and distribution falls to zero. For that reason, the quantity of content exploded. People were much more tolerant of less than perfect content. The evolution meant that casual videos worked on YouTube and you didn't need a $50,000 production budget. Blogs without professional editors built a following. The content evolved to fill the medium.

Registration: With the sharing of long form content like white papers and ebooks, nearly all marketers started offering their stuff the same way they did offline – with a requirement that you have to register to get the document by filling out a form with your email address and other personal information. After all, marketers said, that's what we did offline. But doing that is like playing The Ramones in a gothic cathedral. The content doesn’t fit the venue. When Seth Godin and a few others pioneered the offering of valuable content like ebooks completely free with no registration, a new model that fits the environment of sharing on the web was born. It turns out people eagerly share free content driving the number of views. The content evolved to fill the medium.

Instant: When Google started indexing content for Google Search in real-time, it transformed how information is found. For example, this blog post was indexed by Google the second I posted it. Yet this profoundly important concept is widely misunderstood. Because search engines used to take months to index new content people didn’t have to be quick to post about breaking news. My ideas around Newsjacking were focused on how blog content is slowly evolving based on real-time indexing. Just like how music evolved with the Walkman, content is now evolving to fit with real-time indexing.

David Byrne's How Music Works is amazing. Read it. And as you do, substitute "content" for "music" and see where the ideas lead you. Share them here if you'd like.

Disclosure: How Music Works links to the Amazon Affiliate program.

How to make your site mobile friendly

Apple reported more than five million iPhone 5 units were sold in the first three days that it was offered for sale. And it's not just Apple products. Mobile is now the preferred way many people get online.

With the huge popularity of smartphones and around the world, it is now essential that all organizations have a mobile-friendly site to make it easy for people to find you.

Check out your own site

For a long time I did not have a mobile strategy. It was always "on my list" but never got to the top until one day I realized I was delivering a horrible mobile experience for my buyers when I went to my own site on my iPhone. That got me to act. (Have you seen your site on a mobile device?)

So early this year, I worked with both Jim Stewart at Melbourne, Australia–based StewArt Media and Doug Eymer of Eymer Design to help me. Doug did the design work and Jim's team worked on the technology and all-important Search Engine Optimization components. Check out Jim's SEO blog and Doug’s Marketing and Design blog.

Why a mobile strategy is important

Fun (and important) fact: The Google Mobile search engine indexes differently than the main Google search engine. You need to optimize for both.

If you actually sell a product, a mobile can be a great way to generate new revenue.

"For many businesses mobile is now a new channel and not merely an extension of the web experience," Jim told me. "In Australia over 25% of PayPal users have made a purchase using a smartphone. If you use Google AdWords you can now target mobile users directly and place a clickable phone number in the ad so they simply call through to your business, bypassing your website entirely. We had a Car Dealership client that used this method and had an amazing result."

Read Jim's 4 Crucial Questions to Get Your Business Mobile-Ready.

A few things you can do right now

1. Make sure your site is mobile compliant. You need the pages to load properly in mobile devices.

2. Create a mobile sitemap so the search engines can index your pages for mobile browsers.

3. Use few words and small graphics. People don't read much on mobiles and they want the data to come quickly.

The challenge is to understand this new landscape so you can get your business into the mix at that precise moment of decision. I chose to work with experts and it was the right decision for me.

Don't miss out on opportunities to sell to the many people now accessing their sites from wireless devices.

Disclosure: I have worked with both Doug and Jim on many projects and I pay them when they help me. I mention them in this post because I want to recognize their good work. I am not compensated in any way for doing so.

Twitter launches header photos. Time to add yours.

This week Twitter launched an important new feature: the ability to add a header photo to your profile.

As usual, HubSpot was on top of the news in real-time and quickly wrote this "how to" post: Twitter Rolls Out Cover Photos: How to Add Yours Today.

I conferred with my go-to designer Doug Eymer on what I could do with mine and updated my @dmscott Twitter profile page in just a few minutes.

Facebook has had a feature like this for some time, so the concept is not new. But I'm surprised at how few people use it.

A header photo is a great way to show your personal brand.

Don't try to sell

I suspect many sales & marketing types will add an advertising message to this real estate. I'd recommend resisting this tendency. Adding your messages or heavy-handed branding to the header, in my opinion, detracts. Sure, I could have used an image of, say, all my book covers for my cover. Instead I chose an image I really like of me speaking at the NAMM conference earlier this year shot by Jay Blakesberg earlier this year.

Your header photo will show up on your Twitter web page as well as on mobile devices. On my iPhone, it looks fantastic, greatly adding to my personal branding.

Time to add your header photo, don't you think?

If you're inclined, please leave a comment with a link to yours so we can see some examples.

Real-time Uber app is pure awesomeness

My friend Laura Fitton introduced me to Uber a few months ago and now I am a raving fan of the service.

Uber is an iPhone app (it is also available on Android) that you use to book private driver service, typically in a Lincoln Town Car, in major cities. Currently the service is available in 15 cities including SF, NYC, Boston, Paris, and London.

For a passenger, you use the app to see if cars are nearby. Then you tap a button to request a ride and immediately see how long it will take for your driver to reach you (all done in real-time with Geo-location). You get a message with your driver's name, mobile number, and car license plate number. And in just a few minutes your ride appears.

So on Tuesday the beauty of Uber was in full glory for me when I arrived at San Francisco airport for the Dreamforce event. 50,000 other people were also arriving for Dreamforce during these few days and the taxi line was one hour long (I asked the people at the head of the line). The photo above shows only about 20% of the line. It was probably 100 meters long.

So I popped up Uber and five minutes later I was seated in a comfortable black car being whisked in style to my hotel. Brilliant. The real-time aspects of the app for a passenger are amazing.

Uber pricing is between a regular taxi fare and the fare for a typical telephone booking of a private car service. I paid $65 for my SFO ride to the city.

If you want to try Uber, this link gets you a $10 credit on your first ride.

What about the drivers?

This week I had lengthy discussions with three Uber drivers to find out their side.

The drivers are independent owner-operators who sometimes use old-style telephone broker services to book business as well. The drivers are also enthusiastic. I heard the following "I love Uber!" And: "I target $300 a day from Uber and almost always hit my goal." And: "I average 15 rides a day through Uber."

The app is just as slick for drivers. If they are free, they get a beep on their phone and can instantly see that a passenger is waiting for a ride. They can choose to accept of decline the ride. If they accept, the passenger's name and mobile number are made available and the passenger’s exact location displayed. When the ride starts, the driver hits the start button and then again at the destination, he terminates the ride on the app. Because the passenger’s credit card number is charged and the credit made to the driver’s Uber account, no cash changes hands and it is very quick. Both passenger and driver can rate one another on a 5-star scale much like eBay. Easy!

Disintermediation

Like many businesses before it, the market for private car services is being transformed by real-time mobile technology from Uber. Just like books (with instant Kindle downloads) and many other industries, real-time technology is disintermediating traditional businesses.

I can't gush enough about Uber. I just love the service.

Try Uber with this link and get a $10 credit on your first ride.

Disclosure: I too get a $10 credit for anyone who signs up with the link. But in no way did a write this post to get a few dollars. I want to share a great real-time service and provide you the benefit of the credit. But with your credit comes mine.

Entrenched music business hates free content (again) & blasts Amanda Palmer

In the past few hours, two friends – C.C. Chapman and Justin Cambria - who both know I have written and spoken about rocker Amanda Palmer alerted me to a dustup around how the rock star is putting together bands for her tour.

On her blog, Amanda writes WANTED: HORN-Y AND STRING-Y VOLUNTEERS FOR THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA TOUR!!!!

Now there is an active discussion on Amanda's blog with nearly 200 comments as I write this, many negative. The people who are critical say that Amanda must pay her musicians and that it is not fair to ask people to play for free. Mainstream media has picked up on the story including this from the New York Times Rockers Playing for Beer: Fair Play? and from prefix Amanda Palmer 'Can't Afford' To Pay Her Backup Band.

New business models in the music business

I'm with Amanda on this one.

Because she specifically says "volunteers," it is perfectly clear what she is looking for. In other words, it is not a bait and switch of some kind. Importantly, this request was a post on her personal blog so she can tap her fan base – it wasn’t posted on a musicians' site or another outside forum.

Whenever new business models emerge, the people who work within the established system recoil in horror. That happened to me over the past decade as I talked up new ways to market products and services on the Web. Many traditional agency people hated the ideas and told me so, mocking that you can reach people on the Web for free.

The entrenched powers that be in the music business actively resist change. They shut down Napster. They sue kids who download music. To this day, many record labels forbid YouTube distribution of music which is crazy because having your song on YouTube is, as Bob Lefsetz says, "the new radio."

Amanda constantly pushes new models such as firing her label and self-funding her latest album via Kickstarter. She offers downloads of her new album Theatre is Evil on a pay what you want basis. Traditional record labels hate this stuff.

With change comes opportunity

Journalism is another example of new business models evolving where the entrenched fight change. I write for free for the Huffington Post. I do this because by posting on HuffPo, I can reach a new audience. Many old guard media folks hate this. They say journalists should be paid. They say I am not a valid writer because I have no formal training. Guilty. So don't read me on HuffPo then. You don't have to read this blog. I'm cool with that.

Here's another important point: As models change, new opportunities emerge. For example, I've talked about the tremendous opportunity that journalists have working for companies outside mainstream media. Professional journalists can apply their skills at organizations of all kinds to create content. Companies as diverse as as Eloqua, Boeing, Inova Health System , and HSBC have all hired full-time journalists. For a professional journalist, as one door closes a little another opens wide.

As music models change, musicians should look to the positive, not the negative. Isn't it cool that you can make a website, blog, or YouTube channel for free to promote your music? That opportunity didn't exist a few years ago.

Sure you're not getting paid for Amanda’s gig. But it is your choice to play or not. Should you be an up and coming player, you can have some fun, get a credit, score some stage photos, and publish a YouTube video of the whole thing. You can then spread these via social media to gain exposure. For free.

This is a controversial topic that’s playing out right now in real-time. What do you think?

Content curation: A poor substitute for original content

You may have noticed that content curation has grown very quickly as a way for people and organizations to publish on the Web.

Sure, there are some benefits to this effort. But as a strategy for generating attention for yourself or your business, content curation is nowhere near as powerful as generating original content.

Content curation

Unlike writing your own blog post or shooting your own video, content curation simply involves pointing to others' work.

Services like Scoop.it and Paper.li have sprung up to make it easy for anyone to publish an online magazine by linking to anything on the Web.

Yes, there is value in pointing to others work. But that is the point – it is other people's work, not your own.

Many organizations use guest writers to create content, which in my mind is another form of content curation. Nothing wrong with having a guest blog post now and then, but if you never showcase your own peoples' ideas, I think it is a mistake.

Original Content: The focus a successful marketing

The best way to generate attention is to create original web content including text based information (sites, blogs, a Twitter feed), video content, photographs, infographics, and the like.

You brand yourself as an organization worthy of doing business with. Done well, an added bonus is that the search engines rank the content highly and people are eager to share the content on their social networks.

And hey if you generate some interesting stuff, then the content curators will link to you!! Wouldn't you rather have the links come in?

How to create awesome web content and achieve top search engine rankings

This blog post highlights a very successful marketer - Larry Waight of The Lodge at Chaa Creek, an eco-resort in Western Belize - who has achieved high search engine rankings for many important keywords. This content marketing effort generates a remarkable 80% of new business for the Lodge. This important case example is among the best I've seen if you want to learn how content drives business. This is brand journalism at its finest.

As anyone who has built a web site knows, there is much more to think about than just the content. Design, color, navigation, and appropriate technology are all important aspects of a good web site. Unfortunately, in many organizations these other concerns dominate. Why is that? I think it’s easier to focus on a site's design or technology than on its content.

One of my favorite examples of sites with poor content but big budget design and technology are the global hotel chains. Go to any hotel property from the majors: Hilton, Sheraton, Marriott, or any others from around the world. They all look the same! They have almost no original content about that property!

Yes, appearance and navigation are important. But the best sites focus primarily on content to pull together their various buyers, markets, media, and products in one comprehensive place where content is not only king, but president and Pope as well.

Content drives action

Contrast the vast majority of hotel sites with that of The Lodge at Chaa Creek. I had an opportunity to stay at Chaa Creek a few weeks ago and I interviewed Larry Waight about how he creates his awesome content.

Direct link to the video How to create awesome web content and achieve top search engine rankings on YouTube.

Larry researches what people are searching on such as Belize honeymoon and Belize all inclusive. He then created content on his site or Belize Travel Blog specifically for these phrases which are ranked highly in the search engines.

Solving buyers problem with content

Most interesting to me is how Larry creates content that is about Belize, not just about the hotel.

This is an essential element of Chaa Creek's marketing success. Search terms such as Belize winter solstice 2012 and bird watching in Belize drive people to the lodge who were searching on general travel information. Brilliant.

On his Belize Travel Blog, Larry also writes not about the lodge itself but about Belize travel such as Ten reasons why Belize makes for Honeymoon Bliss.

Brand Journalism

One of my favorite examples of this technique of writing about the things people are interested in is how Larry has created a bunch of content about the local Mayan sites nearby the hotel such as Xunantunich Maya Temples. And, get this, he even writes about the Tikal Mayan site - which is in Guatemala – another country! - about two hours from Chaa Creek.

All this content drives people to the hotel site and blog through the search engines and many people will then choose to stay at The Lodge at Chaa Creek. Indeed, some 80% of new bookings to the Lodge are from this content marketing effort.

This is one of the best examples of content marketing I've seen. If you want to learn more about how Larry creates content, do take the time to watch the video.

It was Larry's introductions that got me to Belize which shows the power of connecting with people via social media. Thanks Larry! I'm planning on returning, with my family next time.

Disclosure (updated September 12, 2012): I connected with Larry several years ago through both Facebook and Twitter. This year we communicated via Facebook about a visit to Belize. To facilitate that, Larry introduced me to the Director of the Belize Tourism Industry Association who invited me to speak in Belize at the Belize Marketing Summit. Because I was going to be in Belize anyway, Larry invited me extend my visit and stay to The Lodge at Chaa Creek for a few days, covering part (but not all) of the costs of my hotel stay. However, this blog post is in no way a paid endorsement. I chose to write this because I truly believe the Lodge at Chaa Creek is a terrific example of success.